Beauty and Masculinity
Can the word beauty and masculinity exist in the same sentence?**
That is a tough sell for many men. For instance, many men, when led in worship to sing “Jesus, you are so beautiful” find that hard to wrap their heads around. We are used to Joe Cocker singing to a beautiful woman, “You are so beautiful to me.” I know – 1974!!! But you get my point. There have been a gazillion songs sung by men celebrating the beauty of their girlfriend or wife. In our culture, the concept of beauty goes with the girl and handsome is used to describe the guy.
So singing that Jesus is beautiful feels odd or even wrong. I can remember as a young teen believer and being led in worship for this first time singing that Jesus was beautiful I kinda wanted to look around and see if any other guys were singing.
There are two things here to talk about. The first is something called the feminization of the church in America and the second it having a grander understanding of the nature of beauty. Let’s tackle the first subject:
There are Christian ‘culture watchers’ who believe Christianity has become feminized. Look at this portion from an article from Biola University (a Christian University in California):
There are generally more women than men in every type of church, in every part of the world, according to church growth experts like Patrick Johnstone, author of Operation World.
A traditional explanation is that women are more spiritual than men. But the leaders of this new movement suggest that the church’s music, messages and ministries cater to women. One of the leaders is David Murrow, author of a provocative book Why Men Hate Going to Church (Nelson Books).
Murrow’s thinking is that the result of this feminization is that many men, even Christian men, view churches as “ladies clubs” and don’t go — or they often go to please their wives. Murrow’s solution is to restore a masculine ethos. Many men’s ministers, including some Biolans, agree.
This line of thinking says that singing love songs to Jesus is off putting to men. They note that much of our worship music in our church services now play a good chunk of music found on popular Christian radio programs, which focus their programming to their largest listening block – women age 35 to 65. The postulate is that ladies are more comfortable singing love songs to Jesus than men are. I frankly don’t disagree.
But my answer to this issue isn’t the same as theirs!
My concern that male Senior Pastor’s that want to address this concern turn to stereotypical masculine approaches:
More sports metaphors in the sermons
Men’s studies at the local sports bar
Axe throwing night
Tattoos and trucks seem to be front and center
A weight room at church
Loud concert like music and lots of flashing lights (this might be gender neutral)
So, now that I have insulted manly men, let me just say that I’m not against any of these things particularly. I like to watch football games with other guys. I have a tattoo. I lift weights, they just are really small!
The bigger point is that the word beauty has been sexualized and made gender specific. There are of course exceptions culturally. We can call a waterfall beautiful or a nicely decorated house beautiful. But for an individual, we tend to think of beauty as being largely what is on the outside of your earth suit (the body the real you lives in).
So to find common ground – you have of course met beautiful people, both men and women who are not particularly physically attractive but have a compelling and winsome personality, a giving spirit and are other-centered to a fault. We find ourselves thinking out loud, “What a beautiful person!” By that, we mean that their ‘spirit’ is replete with attractive character traits that manifest in beautiful ways. Pure, mature, honest, caring, forgiving, truthful, servant hearted. Put them together and you have a beautiful person. A person who is “god-like!”
Thinking of God as beautiful is not a new idea. A very manly man, King David, saw the beauty in his God, as did other prophets and Biblical writers:
Psalm 27:4****
"One thing I ask of the Lord is to dwell in His beauty."
Psalm 50:2****
"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth."
Isaiah 33:17****
"Your eyes will see the King in His beauty."
1 Chronicles 16:29****
"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come before Him."
Psalm 96:6**
"Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary."
The point is that the character of God and things that display the character and attributes of God, are beautiful. The most beautiful thing/person in the Universe is Jesus Christ, the perfect bodily expression of His heavenly Father. Someday, we will all see Him face to face and, like the angels, fall down and sing “Holy Holy Holy is the beautiful Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ!”
Actually, beauty is not “In the eyes of the beholder". Beauty is transcendent and divine.
This is Backyard Conversations and if you have a beautiful thought please don’t be shy! mailto:dave@100foldministries.org is where you can connect with your beautiful ideas!
